CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Title

Illuminates how global solidarity defined African American politics and invigorated the African diaspora

During the height of the Cold War, passionate idealists across the US and Africa came together to fight for Black self-determination and the antiracist remaking of society. Beginning with the 1957 Ghanaian independence celebration, the optimism and challenges of African independence leaders were publicized to African Americans through community-based newspapers and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Inspired by African independence-and frustrated with the slow pace of civil rights reforms in the US-a new generation of Black Power activists embarked on nonviolent direct action campaigns and built alternative institutions designed as spaces of freedom from racial subjugation.

Featuring interviews with activists, extensive archival research, and media analysis, Robin Hayes reveals how Black Power and African independence activists created a diaspora underground, characterized by collaboration and reciprocal empowerment. Together, they redefined racial discrimination as an international human rights issue requiring education, sustained collective action, and global solidarity-laying the groundwork for future transnational racial justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter.

Illuminates how global solidarity defined African American politics and invigorated the African diaspora

About the Author

Robin J. Hayes, PhD, is a contributor to the Atlantic, writer and director of the award-winning documentary Black and Cuba, and creative director of Progressive Pupil.

Reviews

"With accessible writing that will engage both general readers and scholars, Hayes's finely crafted book effectively shows that civil rights require sustained collective action and solidarity."

* Library Journal *

"My kind of book!"

-- Opal Tometti, co-founder of Black Lives Matter

"[Hayes's] work is truly transnational, crossing many borders, and interdisciplinary, grounded in history, sociology, and politics...Highly recommended."

* Choice *

"Love for Liberation provides an accessible and usable playbook of transnational histories and movement stories in a dynamic format. It presents new ways of thinking about and applying research on the globalization of race, Black culture, and the diaspora underground's relationship to social change."

* Peace and Change: Journal of Peace Research *



Book Information
ISBN 9780295749075
Author Robin J. Hayes
Format Paperback
Page Count 252
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 376g